It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, May 13th. I’m Mac Watson.
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After hearing the testimony Tuesday of a woman currently facing a defamation lawsuit by U.S. House candidate Reid Rasner, the Wyoming Joint Judiciary Committee voted to draft a bill to deter frivolous lawsuits that intimidate people into silence. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Michelle St. Louis is being sued by Rasner for defamation after making online comments about him.
“The bill is tricky, right? Wyoming and its and its federal courts have processes for dismissing meritless suits already. So what this attempts to do, there's two ways to do it. You could introduce a new evidentiary challenge process, kind of a back and forth, and that was a lot of people were leaning toward that. Another way that lawmakers have tried and failed to do it in the past is to just give immunity to people acting within their rights.”
St. Louis has told Cowboy State Daily that she believes this case is an attack on her religious faith because Rasner’s complaint both alleges and laments that St. Louis had said Rasner “has blasphemed the name of God” due to his sexual orientation.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming’s already hot nuclear sector just went global, with Taiwan and Wyoming signing an agreement on modular nuclear reactors to serve the island’s surging, AI-driven demand. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that Wyoming mining expert Travis Deti says "This deal bodes well for Wyoming.”
“Taiwan, for one thing, has banned practically, all but banned, nuclear on its island, but they are looking at needing six-and-a-half times more energy in the next three years thanks to the AI craze that has gripped our globe. We're going to develop some kind of test model for them, and maybe we end up manufacturing components for it as well. So it's a big opportunity for us to grow some manufacturing in Wyoming.”
President Lai Ching-te, in his translated remarks, said Taiwan and Wyoming have been collaborating for quite some time, and that the new agreements between Wyoming and Taiwan entities build on previous memorandums of understanding, including one signed last year on quantum computing between Wyoming Energy Authority and Taiwan Association of Quantum Computing and Information Technology.
Read the full story HERE.
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Longtime Cheyenne performer Michael DeGreve, who sang at The Hitching Post six nights a week for 30 years, died Monday in Oregon. Cowboy State Daily’s Zak Sonntag reports that the singer had been battling prostate cancer, according to his wife.
“Michael DeGreve’s career, from a Hollywood hippie to a Wyoming native, effectively, is such a fascinating arc. I mean, here is somebody who grew up in northern Los Angeles and was an immense talent on the basketball court. He might have gone on to the NBA, and then he fell in love with rock-and- roll, and he started playing more guitar. It's funny how he ended up in Wyoming. He came here on a gig he was planning on staying for two weeks and then packing back up his Volkswagen van and going to the next gig, but he fell in love with the place, and he told me, ‘Wyoming just has a vibe, and the Hitching Post had this amazing chemistry.’”
Though his career began in the rowdy orbit of rock-and-roll icons, like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, DeGreve came to feel most at home at Cheyenne’s Hitching Post Inn, where his request-driven sets and skill for story telling helped turn a hotel lobby into the capital city’s preeminent social hot spot.
Read the full story HERE.
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A Trump proposal to lower tariffs on beef imports to lower the price of beef for consumers has Wyoming cattle ranchers concerned. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that U.S. Sen. Lummis said any tariff change shouldn’t undercut ranchers.
“Cattle ranchers are pushing back and saying, you know, if you allow all these imports to come into the US, it's going to cheapen our product, and we have the best beef ever. When you have these imports coming in, it's meat trimming, like, trimming from the beef that gets mixed in with the US beef to make things like, like hamburger patties. So you're not going to see any difference at, like, a steak house, or, you know, buying steak at Walmart. There's going to be no cost difference, even if these tariffs do get lowered.”
Beef prices have steadily climbed since 2021, driven largely by shrinking cattle numbers and strong consumer demand. Ground beef prices are up 40% from five years ago.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.
Cowboy State Daily news continues now…
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The Park County GOP condemned the actions of former Sen. RJ Kost, who is running for office again, for placing a newspaper ad telling people how to change their party affiliation. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports they said his ad “undermines the principles of a constitutional republic.”
“I talked to the Park County Republican Party chair, Vince Vanata, and he was like, ‘This is not so he saw the ad which tells you how to change your party, very much as a call to Democrats to cross over.’ He didn't say that specifically, that's how Vanata says he sees it like these Democrats are going to come and sway the Republican primary? RJ Kost, on the other hand, said, ‘No, this is a lot of this is about capturing independence and giving people a voice,’ since the primary election is so decisive in Wyoming and in Park County in particular.”
The letter enters an ongoing controversy over whether Democrats are, or should, be registering as Republicans to influence the Republican primary election. Both parties’ primary elections in Wyoming are set for Aug. 18.
Read the full story HERE.
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A black bear caused a stir in Cheyenne early Tuesday when it was spotted wandering around the east side of town. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that the bear took shelter on a hayloft in a resident’s barn.
“The alerts went off at about 530 on Tuesday morning, and police and game of fish went out, started looking for him, and I guess they found him around seven in a residence barn out, kind of on the eastern outskirts of Cheyenne. The bear's day ended well. He got taken back out to the snowy mountains and set free again in the wild. And the Game and Fish says that they're not really black bears aren't all that common out in those open areas like Cheyenne.”
Barn owner Karolyn Middleton tells Cowboy State Daily that she didn’t know the bear was on her property until a Cheyenne police officer came to her door and told her the bear was discovered hiding in her barn.
Read the full story HERE.
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“I was going to marry you but now I’m going to kill you" were the words a man allegedly told a woman before allegedly pushing her out of a moving vehicle in Utah. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that he was later arrested by the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
“A woman with two black eyes was banging on the glass at a McDonald's in Utah. She told police when they arrived, that she had been thrown from a moving vehicle. Law enforcement put out a Be-On-The-Lookout call and Wyoming Highway Patrol troopers found Enrique Ballesteros, headed east on I-80 near Rawlins. Ballesteros was arrested for theft. He could face other charges in other states for allegations of domestic abuse.”
Ballesteros made his initial appearance in Carbon County Circuit Court on Tuesday afternoon. He will have a preliminary hearing in 10 days to decide if the case has enough evidence to move it to a higher court. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Read the full story HERE.
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A coyote pushed its luck too far with a mountain lion in the Red Desert and ended up becoming a meal. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that most of the time, run-ins between the two end with both walking away unharmed.
“There are some instances where mountain lions will actually actively hunt coyotes. Or another thing that can happen is a mountain lion will kill an elk or whatever, deer, and they'll have their kill, and the coyote will come in there and try to snatch a bite and gets you close to the mountain lion and gets taken out, and then it becomes kind of like a secondary meal for the mountain lion. So it does happen again. It's rare, but not unheard of.”
Mountain lions are usually associated with rugged mountains and thick forests. But they can succeed in open country, such as the Red Desert, especially when wolves aren’t around, said Elbroch, director of the mountain lion program for Panthera, a wild feline conservation organization.
Read the full story HERE.
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And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.
